Michael Kosta‘s prescription for those amused by Saturday Night Live‘s MAHA-themed send-up of The Pitt: “Watch the original” that The Daily Show aired months ago, stat!
The Pitt has been ripe for parody, given the bevy of awards that Season 1 reaped and now the buzz surrounding Season 2. The Daily Show‘s approach, which aired back on November 21, came in the form of a promo for RFK Hospital, a fast-paced medical drama about “the only hospital brave enough to follow the advice of the medical health secretary,” Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
The sketch’s titular hospital was “led by a doctor (played by Daily Show vet Kosta) who knows that medical science doesn’t have to be based on anything in particular,” and its staff prescribed treatments such as raw milk, fecal matter baths, and defluoridated water.
The pre-taped bit closed with Kosta’s character reacting to news of a school bus full of children hitting a deer by saying, “We can still save that deer meat!”
SNL‘s take, which arrived nearly four full months after The Daily Show‘s, came in the form of a promo for MAHAspital, a fast-paced medical drama “for people who love The Pitt, but can’t stand its phony liberal science.”
Produced by the Health and Human Services Secretary, MAHAspital had doctors and nurses (played by host Harry Styles, Ben Marshall, Jeremy Culhane, Veronika Slowikowska, and Ashley Padilla) prescribing alternative treatments such as raw milk, beef tallow, and a “cold plunge in blue jeans.” The sketch closed with RFK Jr. (James Austin Johnson) rushing a dead bear into the ER, hoping to salvage its meat in time to make jerky.
Kosta shared on his Instagram Story a screenshot of a Deadline story that clocked the similarities, adding: “Watch the original that we released 6 [sic] months ago,” complete with a YouTube link to The Daily Show‘s RFK Hospital segment. “Ridiculous,” he remarked.
It should be noted that ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live! also tapped into The Pitt‘s popularity and RFK Jr.’s “Make American Healthy Again” campaign with a pre-taped January 14 sketch that cast series lead Noah Wyle himself as “not a real doctor” who unleashed a torrent of medical nonsense rooted in or inspired by RFK Jr.’s highly scrutinized beliefs.
That sketch ended with Wyle’s character—no, not dreaming of bear jerky—being put in charge of the CDC.
You nailed it Mikey! We must hold satire shows to a higher standard of using only “original” material.
Kosta is a talentless hack with the personality of plank wood!
{Bleep} “SNL”. The Daily Show is always better! And it’s not even weekly.